418 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ June 16, 1870. 



try to lord it over larder and cellar. Another, as there was every 

 convenience in the neighbourhood, insisted that there should 

 he no pic-nicing, no eating and drinking parties ; but on going 

 round with a friend, there were jovial parties in every cosy nook. 

 It is generally understood that in these cases the eye is chiefly 

 to be gratified, but I have known ot such cases as a gentleman 

 raising his hat to pay proper respect to the proprietor, and a 

 shower of cuttings of some of the newest things descending 

 from that hat. A liberal-hearted lady was much shocked when, 

 after the excitement of an open day, she took a walk in a 

 retired lane in the evening, and found it strewed with many 

 flowers that must have been nipped in mere wantonness to he 

 thrown away. Such annoyances will happen until the well- 

 conducted public exercise a stronger moral Lynching power 

 over the few who thus forget themselves. 



For myself, after considerable experience, I have found that 

 the great mass of men and women feel their honour appealed 

 to just as you repose trust in them. In a few cases, which I 

 considered it better not to see, not one occurred amongst 

 working people ; it was amongBt the respectable classes, so 

 called, that the delinquent would have been found. It is a 

 pleasing recollection that I was enabled to take a part in being 

 the first to open rather extensive grounds to the general public 

 at certain times, without attendance and without apparent 

 supervision. For the time the public was ostensibly its own 

 order-keeper, and all were free to come and free to go that 

 came clean and respectably dressed. These open days have 

 been discontinued, partly owing to a change of proprietorship, 

 hut none have been denied who have made previous application, 

 and no gardener has been refused at any time, though everyone 

 might not have received as much personal attention as could 

 have been wished. 



In the case of the open days to tho public, which proved a 

 source of pleasure to multitudes, I must here in all candour 

 state that I received credit for that to which I could lay but 

 slight claim. To see so many people with happy faces en- 

 joying themselves was, no doubt, a great pleasure, but some- 

 thing a little selfish was at the bottom of the whole. The 

 truth is that visitors at one time were so numerous, and came 

 so at all times, that anything like attention to them would have 

 worn-out a constitution of iron. The management, too, was 

 liable to be disorganised — a thing very apt to be the case when 

 little efficient help can be obtained, except from common 

 labourers. In the summer months, after the toils of the day, 

 juBt when cleaned and seated, there would come a rap at the 

 door, and there might be a party or two come to enjoy the 

 garden in the cooi of the evening. I have known, when young, 

 what it was to be so tired as scarcely to be able to undress. 

 Such visiting involved also other considerations of a merely 

 economical character. I soon found out, what seemed to me 

 at one time rather mysterious, why some of our greatest gar- 

 deners in the largest and most popular places have often been 

 in straitened circumstances, if not afllicted with the horrors of 

 debt. In many places, unless they made up their minds to be 

 stingy, it could not be otherwise. Self-defence, then, to save 

 time and have the great bulk of visitors together, was one chief 

 object of the open days ; and even on this ground the practice 

 is much to be commended, as it leaveB the place more private 

 at other times, and does not disarrange work by having to go 

 or to send attendants with visitors. 



I have slightly or rather delicately hinted at one attendant 

 on visiting, and once for all I may as well out with it for the 

 consideration of proprietors especially. As a class we have 

 been distinguished for our hospitality, and I hope we shall ever 

 he so, but in fine places, or where much new work is going on, 

 the exercise of it may be no joke. The malt:r was alluded to 

 in a company of gardeners at the Great International at Ken- 

 sington, and a celebrated gardener, who has a splendid collec- 

 tion of plants under his care in a populous neighbourhood, 

 stated frankly that in self-defence he had given up asking any 

 visitor to his house, unless his personal friends or those he 

 invited. He further stated that <n being visited by a stranger, 

 a gardener to a gentleman acquaintance of bis own employer, 

 he paid him every attention, but when the dinner hour came 

 he told him he must leave for a time, but that he could in his 

 absence amuse himself among the plants, or go to a house which 

 he pointed out and get what he wanted. The visiting gardener 

 so represented the matter to his employer that he wrote indig- 

 nantly to the narrator's master, finding great fault with his 

 apparent want of hospitality. The reply was quiet, but to the 

 purpose — " When you pay me to treat stranger visitors I care 

 ->ot how many I treat. My wages will not permit me to do so. 



Were I to ask even a portion of such visitors to my house I 

 should soon be unable to keep a house over my head." I sup- 

 pose that few could have been so cool and determined. I tell 

 the true story, that proprietors may clearly see and understand 

 that numbers of visitors are anything but an unmixed advan- 

 tage to gardeners. Some to my knowledge do comprehend it 

 and make an allowance to meet such a demand, others freely 

 take it all on themselves. There are places, such as one I have 

 known for more than thirty years, that no visitor to the gardens 

 need go away without ample refreshment ; I know of others 

 where a gardener rarely takes any but personal friends to his 

 house, as he has no more to do than take them to the mansion 

 with the full approval and desire of all concerned. These in- 

 stances, however, are but the favourable exceptions ; were they 

 more general a load of care would be taken from many a good- 

 managing gardener's wife, who now may be frequently non- 

 plussed when a party unexpectedly drops in upon her close on 

 the dinner hour, when she has nothing extra in the larder, and 

 is some miles from butcher and baker. 



From what has been incidentally stated, I should modify a 

 little your expression, "Gardeners should be admitted when- 

 ever able to call." This, you will perceive, involves another 

 circumstance — that it would always be suitable to receive them 

 and pay them proper attention. I have hinted that this would 

 not always be the case. I have stated that in some cases there 

 is not a direct forbidding, but a coolness as respeots visitors 

 on the part of employers. It has been painful to me to visit 

 some places ; the gardener seemed in a sort of dread of meeting 

 with, or being seen by, any of the family. Now, the manly 

 and straightforward is always the best. If my employer forbade 

 visitors, whilst I was his servant I would not admit one ; if I 

 had liberty I should use it openly. Of course I would as much 

 as possible avoid coming in contact with any of the family, but 

 I could not condescend to skulk or hide so that visitors should 

 not be seen — either open visiting or no visiting. In all cases 

 where there is the least of this coolness, it would be well if 

 visitors gave notice of their intended visit, so that any difficulty 

 might be smoothed out of the way. 



Again, the merely giving such notice by neighbouring gar- 

 deners I should consider in general aB quite unnecessary. It 

 would somewhat do away with the friendly, trusting, neigh- 

 bourly feelirg that so generally exists, and I think nothing of 

 the kind required, because if Eneh neighbours did not receive 

 adequate attention at one time, they would see the reason, and 

 find no great difficulty in repeating the visit. But in the case 

 of gardeners from a distance, it would be well for them to make 

 their intentions known previously. Supposing the gardener 

 were from home, many would look on their visit, though they 

 saw the place, like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. 

 Other reasons, which do not apply to large places with their 

 staff of cultured assistants, apply to places well worth seeing ; 

 but where almost everything mutt depend on the head gardener, 

 matters are apt to be thrown out of joint if the gardener leaves 

 his working superintendence, or the gardener visiting must be 

 content with a labourer attendant, with which he may be any- 

 thing but satisfied. Besides, there can be little doubt that 

 some employers grudge the time thus taken up with visitors, 

 and it is advisable to give little reason for it. For the satisfac- 

 tion, therefore, of visitor and visited, I should say it is better 

 for strangers from a distance to write before coming, and then 

 the gardener can make arrangements, so as to show them a 

 little desirable attention. 



I would conclude with a few words of advice to those visiting 

 gardeners who, without giving any notice, just do as I do in 

 this neighbourhood, make a visit when able to call. 



First, avoid being so thin-skinned as to think you have not 

 received enough of attention, or if the gardener Bhould be 

 forced to send an assistant with you instead of accompanying 

 3 ou himself, and which he might have been able to do if he 

 knew of your visit. Look at the bright side of things and all 

 will be well. 



Secondly, you may see much to find fault with, but unless on 

 terms of warm friendship keep all such matters to yourBelf. 

 Most likely they are depressing enough already, and are too 

 well seen without a visitor pointing them out. It must be a 

 wonderful place if there is nothing to admire ; treat of that — 

 I do not mean in a white-washing way, but so us to create and 

 maintain a kindly sympathy. It is worse than bad taste to 

 give expression to what must give pain and do no good. 



Thirdly, time your visits, so as to give the least trouble to 

 the visited, and thus allow them to show their tangible kind- 

 ness, if disposed, without wounding the sensitiveness of the 



